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Researchers have concluded that young women might have bladder control problems that may be linked to birth control use.

Researchers surveyed, 1,000 young Australian women and found that 13 percent said they'd had problems like leaking urine when they exercised, or often having to rush to the bathroom to avert an accident.

"The traditional belief has been that incontinence really occurs as a consequence of pregnancy and aging," senior researcher Susan R. Davis, told Reuters Health.  "What prompted us to undertake this study was the fact that nobody had actually looked at incontinence in younger women who had never been pregnant.

The study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers found that women were sexually active and not using birth control pills had the highest risk: about 22 percent had urinary problems in the past month. That compared with rates of around 10 percent among women who had either never had sex or were sexually active and on the Pill.

But the reasons for the birth control finding are not clear.

Past studies have come to conflicting conclusions on whether birth control pills are related to higher or lower risks of urinary incontinence -- or whether there's a relationship at all and researchers said more research is needed to see whether birth control pills, themselves, have any effect on bladder control problems.

Researchers said there are different options for combating the symptoms.

Cutting back on caffeine and alcohol and limiting how much fluid you drink at night could help. Training your bladder by going to the bathroom at fixed times, even if you don't feel like you need to go and doing  Kegel exercises to strengthen the pelvic muscles that control urination also helps.

Researchers have noted that the women used in the study were about 22 years old college students and may not be representative of all young women. Future studies to confirm these results in a larger, population-based sample of young women will be necessary.